CURRENTS INTERNATIONAL Japan's mammoth Chisso Corp. has been assessed a record environmental damage penalty for polluting Minamata Bay with mercury-bearing wastes that allegedly killed 45 persons and seriously poisoned more than 2000 others. A Kumamoto district court upheld a lawsuit by 138 plaintiffs that demanded $4 million for damages they claimed to have
Mercury poisoning
suffered from eating polluted fish and shellfish taken from the bay. Chisso's president, Kenichi Shimada, said prior to the ruling his company would accept the court's decision regardless of its outcome. Chisso is a diversified corporation that manufactures compound fertilizer, acetic acid, ethyl acetate, and polyvinyl and vinyl formal resins. Soviet and U.S.experts have signed an agreement calling for information exchanges and development cooperation on new pollution control technology. The pact covers pollution caused by industrial processes and power plants, and transportation sources such as automobiles and trucks. A principal feature is the proposed study of water pollution in intensively developed river basins, the Delaware, and other rivers in the U . S . , as well as the Moscow and Seversky Donets rivers in the U.S.S.R. Another joint program agreed upon will be to study Russia's Lake Baikal, the Great Lakes, and Lake Tahoe.
WASHINGTON The Federal Government should expand its role in reducing solid waste instead of returning the job to the nation's cities, according to an EPAsponsored task force. In a report for
the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the task force claims, "The national disposal crisis is the result o f . . . forces and practices beyond the scope of local government's capacity to resolve." The report also criticizes ICC-controlled freight rates that set far higher rates for recycled materials than for raw materials. EPA has set new national emission standards for three hazardous air pollutants: asbestos, beryllium, and mercury. The pollutants are the first to be designated health hazards under the Clean Air Act amendments of 1970. EPA has also announced interim regulations for awarding waste treatment plant construction grants. Whereas the agency formerly awarded grants from appropriated funds, it now will award grants as "constructural obligations" to be paid when the Administration makes additional funds available. EPA also will not award grants after July 1, 1973 unless the applicant demonstrates that the sewer collection system discharging into the treatment plant is not subject to excessive infiltration. Prompt congressional approval of the Administration's strip mining bill is called for by CEQ chairman Russell Train. The measure, which would set up federal performance standards for all strip mining operations, has been criticized for its provision that allows states two years to comply with the bill's regulations. The U.S. Coast Guard has responsibility for R&D on marine sanitation devices (MSD's). The transfer of responsibility from the EPA was mandated by last year's water pollution control law. In response to its new duties, the CG has opened an interim R&D center at Groton, Conn. The permanent facility will be located at the CG Academy in New London, Conn. TVA will install a gas-conditioning system to improve control of fly ash emissions at its Bull Run plant near Oak Ridge, Tenn. Officials approved the new facility, a full-scale sulfur trioxide injection system, after tests demonstrated precipitator collection efficiency is improved by injecting small amounts of sulfur trioxide into flue gases to condition the ash particles.
The Patent Office has approved 982 antipollution patent applications for accelerated treatment since the beginning of a priority program (February 17, 1970) t O expedite the processing of patent requests for antipollution inventions. Of the number reviewed, 373 have been approved for issuance by patents commissioner Robert Gottschalk. Gottschalk said the special priority cases were handled in less than eight months, whereas it usually requires 25 months for full review of a patent request.
STATES The state of Alabama is suing the Federal Government to require that federal agencies obtain state Air Pollution Control Commission permits. The suit alleges that the federal EPA has refused to force the Army and TVA to comply with the state implementation rules EPA approved for Alabama. Two TVA power plants are the largest polluters in the state, according to the Commission, The state attorney general's office has received inquiries from 1 2 other states, and Virginia has filed a motion in federal court asking for permission to join Alabama's suit. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is also suing the Federal Government in an attempt to release $6 billion in federal money for the construction of municipal sewage facilities impounded by President Nixon. The suit alleges that the Nixon Administration, through the federal EPA, violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement on the impoundment action. Owing to the impoundment, only 14 of the state's 140 sewage treatment projects will be fully funded this year. Ohio's EPA has established a priority list for allotment of available federal construction grants for municipal water pollution control facilities. Projects in Ohio's priority water basinsLake Erie and Mahoning, Cuyahoga, Miami, and Scioto rivers-are receiving prime consideration for funding. Ohio EPA director Ira Whitman warns ". , . the lack of funds will impede progress in the cleanup of Ohio's waters, and perhaps in the international effort to clean up the Great Lakes as well."
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Environmental Science & Technology
CURRENTS Chicago's detergent phosphate ordinance has been declared unconstitutional in a landmark decision by a U.S. district court. The ordinance had made it illegal to sell detergents containing phosphorus within the state of Illinois after June 30, 1972. "Besides establishing without question that phosphate detergents are not only safe but also beneficial to the users, plaintiffs also proved that the prohibition of the sale of these products in the city of Chicago seriously disrupted the flow of interstate commerce," according to the federal court decision. The suit was brought by the Soap and Detergent Assoc., Procter & Gamble Co., FMC Corp., Monsanto Co., and Amway Corp. An Agricultural Advisory Committee has been formed by the Illinois lnstitute for Environmental Quality, the research and evaluation arm of the state environmental program, at the request of Mary Lee Leahy, director
Feedlot waste controls?
of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. The committee will consider the need for livestock waste management regulations and, if appropriate, propose new regulations to the Illinois Pollution Control Board. Atlanta will rail transport 40% of its garbage to an out-of-town dump by mid-1 974. The city has contracted Southern Railway to haul the garbage to Twiggs County in central Georgia. A $1.25-million shredding and baling facility will compact the garbage which will then be dumped in mining pits. New Orleans, La., became the first major U.S. city to undertake a modern, long-range program to recover and market reusable materials from mixed solid waste. A 10-year agreement, signed by the city, the National Center for Resource Recovery, Inc. (Washington, D.C.), and Waste Management, Inc. (Oak
Brook, Ill.), was approved by the New Orleans City Council last month. The $3 million facility will be operated in conjunction with an approved sanitary landfill. I n St. Louis, Mo., Union Electric Co. is expanding its operation of burning solid waste in its power plant boilers. The federal EPA, the city of St. Louis, and the American Iron and Steel Institute are providing $520,000 to add an air classifier and shredder to the system for resource recovery. New Jersey's new Waste Control Act gives the Department of Environmental Protection authority to develop regulations to control incineration or landfill of solid waste and treatment or disposal of liquid wastes that originate outside of the state. The bill provides for a $3000 fine for each violation or day of violation.
TECH N0 LOGY Products that offer the greatest economic potential for reuse of waste glass have been identified in a study by the Midwest Research Institute ( M R I ) . Each of the products-building panels, glass wool, terrazzo, and slurry seal-are applicable to the construction industry. MRI says that building panels made from waste glass should be an attractive product for manufacture in selected areas at moderate scales of operation. Such panels would be competitive with inferior quality panels and panels costing far more to produce because of their comparative low cost and decorative quality. MRI is presently studying two additional productsfoam glass and tile-made from mixtures of waste glass and animal wastes. Smog may be reduced without reducing automobile exhaust emissions, according to Dr. Julian Heicklen at the Pennsylvania State University. As a result of his studies on the precise pathway by which hydrocarbons and nitric oxide are transformed into photochemical smog, Heicklen has identified a vulnerable self-sustaining chain reaction in which atmospheric nitric oxide in the presence of hydrocarbons and uv radiation produces nitrogen dioxide and ultimately ozone. Heicklen has found that at
least two compounds, iodine and aniline, effectively disrupt the chain mechanism so that smog formation is not possible, although neither is necessarily the inhibitor. Meanwhile, at the University of Southern California, scientists in its school of engineering have added another rare earth catalyst-lanthanum cobalt oxide-to the growing list of possible platinum substitutes in catalytic converters. The group is evaluating a series of catalysts substituting cerium and strontium for the lanthanum. One of the formulations reportedly compares favorably with any nonplatinum catalyst. A process for recycling chemicals from waste water has been developed by the Dow Chemical Co. The process uses chlorination, catalyzed with ultraviolet light, to take acetic acid out of sodium chloride brine. Both the sodium chloride and the acetic acid are oxidized to methyl chloride and carbon dioxide, respec-
tively, and can be used in the manufacture of other chemicals. Dow will scale up the process under a $108,250 research grant from EPA's Office of Research and Monitoring. In addition to reclaiming chemicals from contaminated waste brine, research will be undertaken to see if the process will work in reclaiming other organic contaminants, including glycolic, lactic, chloracetic, propionic, and butyric acids. Fram Corp.'s DualSorb process may give activated carbon treatment a run for its money in treating wastes with organic color and heavy metals. The process uses two sequential beds of synthetic resins to do the work. The first bed contains Resin "M," a true absorbent with surface activity and a high degree of internal Volume 7, Number 5, May 1973
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The National Bureau of Standards makes exacting demands. So when they needed 400 cylinders of specialty gases for air pollution control work, Linde delivered. The National Bureau of Standards measured and certified the contents of these 400 cylinders and they are being used as a benchmark for specialty gases to be used in air pollution control. If you would like t o know how to obtain these I UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION Standard Gases for Automotive Emissions Analysis, LlNDE DIVISION, Dept. LB-EST-5 just write the Office of Standard Reference Materials, I 270 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10017 National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. I 20234. Ask for SRM 1665-1669 and SRM Gentlemen: 1673-1675. Please send your 108 page catalog on specialty gases. I Whatever your specialty gas needs, you’ll find that I Linde measures up. For a free copy of our 108-page NAME “Linde Specialty Gas Catalog,” simply send in the I TITLE I coupon below.
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COMPANY
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Frsm's DualSorb process
Pmm
Brk#
pore structure. The second bed contains resin "C," a cross between an ion exchange resin and an adsorbent. Resin "M" can be regenerated with organic solvents such as methanol, and resin "C" can be restored by ionic regenerants. Bench-scale tests have been successful, Fram says, and a full-scale plant is now under construction at I C I , America's dyestuffs plant (Dighton, Mass.). The system will compete with carbon economically.
INDUSTRY The U.S. steel industry has placed a record $201.8 million worth of new air and water pollution control equipment in operation during 1972, according to a report issued by the American Iron and Steel Institute. The figure for 1972 exceeded the $1 61.6 million spent on air and water pollution control equipment in 1971. Industry experts estimate the total cost of maintaining and operating antipollution equipment at 12% of the original construction cost. Thus, to keep functioning the $1.4 billion worth of such equipment installed since 1950, steelmakers spend approximately $1 68 million annually. William Ruckelshaus' decision to scrap the deadlines for meeting auto emission levels and grant the industry a one year's delay left Detroit less than enthusiastic. Ford Motor Co. chairman Henry Ford I I said the decision "acknowledges that despite Ford's good faith effort to meet the emissions standards for 1975, there was no practical way for us to achieve the statutory levels in the time frame specified in the law. Having done
this, he [Ruckelshaus] then apparently went beyond the limits of practicality in the two sets of interim standards he proposes." GM's chairman Richard C. Gerstenberg was similarly glum. "We are disappointed and dismayed by the decision of the EPA," Gerstenberg said. "While the 1975 standardi, as originally established, have been delayed for a year, the interim standards will be most difficult to attain and may well require the use of catalytic converters nationally." Meanwhile, Sen. Edmund Muskie announced plans to hold hearings on the Ruckelshaus decision. "Mr. Ruckelshaus was faced with a very difficult decision, involving some very poor choices," Muskie said. Muskie has hinted repeatedly that the Congress might tackle more specific legislation to force Detroit to make cleaner cars. TRW Systems Group, under contract with the Coordinating Research Council (CRC), has found that 0 automobile service garages were only 60% effective in repairing automotive engine components which, when out of adjustment, contribute to increased emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxide 0 car owners take their autos into garages for routine tune-ups more frequently than was originally supposed 0 engine components that affect emissions fall out of adjustment less frequently in late-model cars, and the degree of adjustment required is usually less than that required for pre-1968 vehicles. Robert S.First, Inc., a New Yorkbased consulting firm, has put together a comprehensive multiclient study of acquisition, joint venture, and licensing opportunities in the waste water treatment field in Europe. The survey covers some 100 organizations with annual sales over $1 million which have a substantial portion of their business in effluent water treatment or closed system industrial and boiler water treatment. The 800-page report devotes about eight pages per company or organization. Details are available from Robert S. First, Inc., 401 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017.
The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI), says a study done by the independent research firm of Environmental Analysts, Inc. shows that plastic packaging wastes might cost less to collect than other packaging materials if collecting receptacles lighter than metal garbage cans were used. The report says the weight of the heavy metal garbage cans can mask minor changes in refuse composition that might affect collection costs. I f lighter receptacles were used, plastics because of their generally lower weight per unit of packaging, might actually cost less to collect than other packaging materials.
Florida Power & Light Co. has begun initial testing of its unique cooling canal system at its Turkey Point plant site in South Dade County, Fla. Although it will take several months to reach detailed conclusions about the tests, early indications point to a successful operation of the system, according to electric utility. The canal network is used to condense exhaust steam from the generating units. Plant water that is 12" warmer than background enters the 10 canals at the north end and flows southward very slowly returning northward back to the plant through five canals and takes about two days for the water to make the complete trip. The cooling system is about 50% complete with 15 canals, each 200 ft wide, 4 ft deep, and about 5 miles long. To be completed next year, the system will contain about 168 miles of canals; total cost of the project is estimated at more than $35 million. Volume 7, Number 5 , May 1973
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